Washington renews debate on "Thou shalt not tax" pledge

Canadians can be forgiven for wondering who Grover Norquist is, and why he gets so much attention in Washington. It’s not unusual that major political figures in the U.S. would be almost entirely unknown outside the tiny festering world of the U.S. capital. Years after he’d become a major power in conservative U.S. politics, mention of Rush Limbaugh still drew blank stares in Canada.

Norquist is of a similar cast. As head of one of the right-wing money machines that pour funds into the campaigns of candidates they like — or finance attack campaigns against those they don’t — he has long struck fear in Republican candidates wary of getting on his bad side. He is best known as creator of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, which binds signatories to blanket opposition to any and all tax increases, for any reason in any form. Ill-advised as it may seem for any politician to cement themselves into an inalterable position, which can’t be changed no matter how circumstances may alter, Norquist has succeeded in terrifying the vast majority of Republican candidates into signing on. Ninety-five percent of the GOP members of Congress are reportedly signatories; only six of the 241 Republicans in the House haven’t signed, according to Norquist. All of the candidates for the GOP presidential nomination signed it; Mitt Romney, the eventual nominee, signed in 2006 before his first run at president.

It didn’t seem to do him much good in the end, and the latest news about Norquist is a suggestion — which may or may not be wishful thinking — that his powers are beginning to wane in light of the party’s poor showing against Barack Obama. If 95% of the party pledges undying fealty to a no-tax platform, and gets whomped twice in a row by a Democratic candidate conservatives consider a socialist, and who ran this time on a “tax the rich” platform, doesn’t it suggest the strategy might not be the best you could adopt?

According to reports, four prominent Republicans, including Eric Cantor, arch anti-Obamaite and leader of the GOP majority in the House of Representatives, have now indicated they’re no longer totally fixated on the pledge.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker says the only pledge he will keep is his oath of office. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says no one in his home state of Virginia is talking about what leaders in Washington refer to simply as “The Pledge,” a Norquist invention that dates to 1986. Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss says he cares more about his country than sticking to Norquist’s pledge.

That is music to the ears of eager onlookers who see Norquist as an egomaniac elevated to prominence as a pawn of well-financed private interest groups. A Washington Post profile fairly drips of disapproval:

Norquist likes reading about himself. In his headquarters’ library, opposite the 100-plus copies of his own book (“Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives”), are shelves reserved for tomes in which he is quoted. A hallway is lined with framed newspaper and magazine stories about him. One is in Japanese. In his executive office, decorated with a green lava lamp, a Janis Joplin poster (“a high point of Western civilization,” he said) and stuffed “Sesame Street” Grover dolls, another floor-to-ceiling bookcase holds titles including a 1994 comic book called “Taxpayers’ Tea Party” in which he is depicted. He plucked a copy of Ralph Nader’s“Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us” out of the stacks, because, he said, “I’m a major character in it.” The green tags on the pages, he explained, mark every time his persona appears.

The tax pledge has become a line across which Republicans fear to tread. George H.W. Bush’s failure to win re-election was blamed on his breaking a “no new taxes” promise. Ronald Reagan is treated as a God — not least by Norquist – for launching the lower-taxes revolution, even though he didn’t always stick by it. The Wall Street Journal mocks giddy liberals who are already celebrating Norquist’s anticipated demise, noting: “So the same folks who like to denounce politicians because they can’t be trusted are now praising politicians who openly admit they can’t be trusted,” and adding that Norquist’s only real influence is as a stand-in for millions of Americans who feel the same way:

Mr. Norquist merely had the wit to channel the electorate’s limited government beliefs into a single-issue enforcement mechanism. Politicians sign the pledge not because they want to box themselves in—politicians by their nature want, er, flexibility—but because they want to get elected. And re-elected.

Bloomberg News’s Francis Wilkinson agrees, arguing the GOP problem is much bigger than Norquist, and consists of the party’s willingness to let itself become typecast as a shill for self-interested billionaires. It’s not that Norquist has $15 million he can use to spread fear among candidates, says Wilkinson, it’s that he’s only one of an array of similar self-interest groups that use their wealth to influence policies, and have successfully corralled so many Republicans.

The Journal is correct. Some guy named Norquist really isn’t what’s wrong with Washington. A bigger problem is that a few thousand very wealthy donors — not all of them especially public spirited — maintain a stranglehold on one of the two major political parties. If Republicans want to win national elections, more than a couple senators will have to acknowledge that power — and confront it.